Waiting...... waiting....... waiting..........it seems like that is all we do. We miss them. We check all the websites. We miss them even more. We look again. Nothing seems to change.

Do you have a funny story to share to help ease the pain and boredom of waiting? It can be about you and your fiancee, a cultural difference story, strange interview questions.......... anything that would be appropriate for this website.

To kick things off I will copy one of my prior posts regarding a cultural difference issue (first visit to Russian bath):

Here is another cultural difference for you. Russians like their saunas rough (among other things). While traveling in Russia I was invited to a Russian bath. It was insanely hot and I had the hell beat out me with these tree branch things. A couple of times I wanted to scream but I thought that would appear unmanly. I did feel relaxed afterwards but it was the kind of relaxation one feels after a beating has ended.

My funny story came at the end of my trip. I had a 2 hour layover between my flight from Kazan to Moscow and from Moscow to Frankfurt. It was raining when we landed in Moscow, so traffic was at a complete standstill trying to get from Sheremetyevo 1 to Sheremetyevo 2. To make it even more frustrating I had the only cab driver in Moscow who obeys the rules of the road.

So when I finally got up to check in to my flight, the flight closed as I was the next in line. The agent sent me to see the manager, who was this tall gorgious red-headed woman with a heart of ice. She was literally the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen, with a cruel streak a mile wide. I tried to explain that I had been next in line, that my visa was expiring within hours, and to please let me on the flight but she wouldn't do it. Just kept saying "flight is closed, flight is closed" with that special sneer that only Russian women can pull off. (and man oh man do I love and hate that sneer!)

So I had to go back to ticketing and actually buy a ticket to Berlin, and then hope I could make a connection to Frankfurt. My visa was due to expire in about 2 hours, so I had very little time. The agent sells me the ticket, and once again I go to check in. At that moment the only functioning baggage x-ray machine breaks down, so they're hand-checking all the luggage. Once again I missed my flight.

So I get sent to another manager, explain to him that my visa is about to expire, that it was my second attempt to get the hell out of the country, and he agrees to get me on the flight. Then he calls in the red-headed manager, and she is NOT happy to see me. Starts arguing with the guy in Russian, but apparently he out-ranked her and made her process me. Now she's pissed at being over-ridden, and in front of me no less. So by this time she is fuming. So I follow her out to the desk, and she's snapping orders at me like "give me Russian visa! Give me ticket!" I just meekly complied. She gets me checked in, hands me my boarding pass, and then in her heavy Russian accent says "Do not come back to Russia!" I was stunned at first, and then just had to laugh.

Turned out the flight was delayed over an hour anyway, and I'm sure she knew it. But man was she angry!

LOL
But unfortunately, being an a-hole is very typical of Russian officials!

This is the story some of my friends call The Cumin Caper

I like black bean soups with oranges and stuff like that, and wanted to make some for my wife. This was a few years ago -- well before we were engaged. At that time, she was this girlfriend who was turning my life upside down. I had just arrived in her city but hadn't been to her apartment yet. It turned out that I hadn't left any cumin in mine and, since it was 5 am, I couldn't call her and ask her if she had any. I was sick of lying in bed not sleeping, so I decided to look up the word for cumin, write various candidates down in my notebook, and go to the grocery store.

The grocery store had rearranged itself since the last time I was there. I wandered all over the place, looking very carefully at all the different packets of spices, referring to my notebook from time to time, and found nothing like cumin. (Since then, I've never seen any cumin in that country.) I bought some yugurt and butter, just not to leave completely empty handed. AFter checking out, I went to leave this store but this guy got between me and the door. He said something incomprehensible to me, and I said, Я не говорю по-русский and tried to walk past him. He put his hand firmly on my wrist and this second guy materialized behind me. Great, I thought! Its 0530, the store is deserted, and I'm about to be mugged. The guy led me to this small room underneath the stairs. It was filled with TV screens showing the store. I realized they were plainclothes store detectives. They were asking me all sorts of questions and were not at all happy that I couldn't figure out what they were after. Their approach was to ask more slowly and more loudly in Russian. (I thought grinkos were the only ones who thought that if you speak loud enough, a person can understand a foreign language! Wrong!!) I fianlly realized that they thought I was a shoplifter. (I hadn't slept properly in two days and my brain wasn't working on all cylinders for sure.) They wanted me to empty my pockets, I gathered. I pulled out my gloves, winter cap, and they kept wanting more. So I gave them dirty kleenixes, baggage check stubs, gum wrappers, receipts from US stores, you get the idea. Its amazing the junk you can pull out of your pockets sometimes. EVventually, there was nothing left, and they let me go.

I went back to my apartment. I waited until a decent hour, called my girlfriend and told her about it. During the morning while she was at work, she got more and more angry about the thing. At lunchtime she made me go back to her to this store. She summoned a manager, and then the manager's manager. She was furious with them, and pretty loud about it. It was funny. Every once in a while, she'd stop what I was saying, and ask me, "is that right?" What to do? I would agree. I understsood very little except, occasionally, "famous American" and "famous scientist". (I am American and a scientist but *definitely* not famous.) The managers ended up agreeing that they were completely wrong to detain me -- they should have called the militia instead! The next day, there were signs all over this shop -- pictographs really -- showing that you couldn't take pictures or write anything down. I didn't shop there for two years. (There are two other grocery stores in our neighborhood.)

But now, I think this whole escapade was pretty funny.

And yes, she had plenty of cumin I'd left her, and the soup was good.

Nothing like a good repeat
See Below:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;#entry1018886

Women like her are so fun. Not on the job, but later, and preferably after a few adult beverages!!!



I frequented the supermarket near the apartment I stayed in so much, the guards were getting to know me and my buddy. They'd give us "the nod" every day when we'd come in to get our microwaveable chicken cordon-bleu and bottles of beer. That's all we survived on the first couple days we were there because we couldn't figure out how to operate the stove and we were scared we'd blow the place up if we started tinkering with the pipes.

My wife arrived and laughed at us for not being able to figure out how to use the stove.... and then she couldn't figure it out either. She ended up calling the girl that rented us the apartment and having her walk us through the start-up procedure. Seems we had to push and turn the valve, wait, turn again, then light the matches. We were laughing about it being a crazy Russian stove and my wife was telling us it was a crazy Moscow stove. In reality... it was German.




Did you miss the "I will copy one of my prior posts?"

After my first meeting (interview) with my fiancée’s parents I was on my way out of Russia with 4 bottles of vodka bestowed upon me by her Father. At this time I was still in the dark as to how the meeting (interrogation) had gone but as I was standing at the final security check at SVO 1 waiting to go to my plane, I was none too worried about it.

A security guard, about 65 had me open up all my luggage including the box I had so carefully packed the vodka in. Upon seeing the 1st of four bottles he picked it up very carefully and asked me in a heavy Russian accent, "Vat is this?". I explained that Tanya's Father had given me the vodka. He replied, "You must have really impressed somebody". I asked him if that was because he gave me 4 bottles (thinking that he was going to confiscate them at any moment), to which he replied, "Nyet... this is the good stuff". At which point he let me pack up and get on my way.

It was not until that moment that I realized I had aced the interview. I also found out that this particular vodka was worth about a days wage for her Father. I was amazed at his generosity.

WONDERFUL STORIES ALL...... KEEP THEM COMING. I feel our moods already lifting.

I think we don't have cumin in Russia. We have zafron which is much better.

And yes, Russian people are very generous once they like you!

Moxcamel the most beautiful women for you supposed to be women you going to marry:)

Oops, I think I made a mistake. What I meant to say is that she (the red-head) was an ugly wart-covered troll with buck teeth and hairy arms.

But you are right, my girl is the most beautiful woman in Russia. I'm a little worried that Putin may declare her a national treasure and not let her leave.

hehehe thats better:)she is really pretty:)

Last year while visiting Saint Petersburg we were standing across from the front of the Russian Admiralty building in a lovely park setting with a beautiful fountain. I pointed towards the entrance and said "Там матрос" or there is a sailor. She immediately became highly annoyed and indignant and said "absolutely not, you can not call this person a Матрос". Now, having been a sailor for some years in a prior life, I was quite confident in my identification of the individual standing there, my use of the word and its translation into Russian. So I voiced my insistance even stronger. Soon we were having quite an animated disagreement in the park, each of us sure of our position. Finally she said, "you cannot refer to admiral so-and-so (I forget his name) as a sailor". Turns out, in the same line of sight as the aforementioned sailor was a statue of a famous Russian admiral - who, I can assure you, I will never refer to as "Матрос".

hey
you might wanna change you signature from "Русский форум член" to "ЧЛЕН РУССКОГО ФОРУМА"
It is right grammatically, and also makes a great difference in meaning,
just like the word "member" in English, the word "член" has several meaings,
the context of your original signature suggests the *body part* meaning (but not the leg/arm kind of body part)

We do, it's тмин

I gave him the same suggestion a few months ago. To see his reply go to:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...4&hl=member

i'm kinda new here
if he wants to be a член, that's fine with me

Actually there are two similar seeds that are often confused.

Caraway seed or Persian cumin = тмин обыкновенный или просто тмин
Cumin or Cummin = Зира, индийский тмин, римский тмин, кумин

Due to the confusion of the two very similar seeds by a translator many European language cookbooks do not distinquish clearly between the two.

That's absolutely correct.

Тмин - wonderful little seeds that give Russian bread this delicious smell.

Кумин (зира) is added to плов and gives it this yellow color and spesific taste.

Didn't they try to ban the export of Russian ladies last year sometime? That crazy guy in the Duma, I forget his name, but he tried to ban all foreign marriages saying Russia's gene pool was depleting due to the large number of brides leaving for the U.S. and other foreign countries. Anyone else remember this crackpot?



There's a method to my madness.



Click on the link to view the method.

I remember that guy.

Gotta say though, Russian men aren't exactly helping their cause. Every time I went to a night club, the dance floor was always filled with about 90% women, 10% men. All of the other men were sitting at tables huddled around themselves, getting drunk and completely ignoring the women. The night Nadya and I went out on a double date with her roommate, the roommate's boyfriend absolutely would not dance with her. I really didn't understand that at all.

Also, completely off the topic of evil westerners depleting the Russian gene pool: what's the deal with wrapping luggage in cling wrap? Never saw that until I got to Russia. I thought it might be to keep the luggage from getting scuffed up, but I noticed people with pretty ragged luggage doing it too. Are they just mistrustful of baggage handlers?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zhirinovsky

http://pytheasonline.blogspot.com/2005_06_12_archive.html
His proposed law.

Oh brother!!!

Someone's been dabbling in the LSD again

he is not crazy, he is a COMMUNIST
LOL

Yeah. I knew all that at the time. The store had none of these spices. The store detective didn't take it very kindly when I asked him to help me find it, either. It was a rather bizarre, frightening, kafkaesque esperience to have at 5 am...

Not funny at the time, but pretty funny now.

Wrapping bags in Russia is a 100% rational response to some of the most brutal baggage handling practices I've seen anywhere on the planet. Now, that said, things are improving at a some Russian airports. But this "safety first" habit will take a long time to break.

Russians are not the only ones who do that. In Turkey, I have seen plenty of Germans with wrapped bags

That's just simple supply and demand. Over there, it's the women going to night clubs "trolling" for men.



Strictly from a customs/agricultural standpoint, it could also be to keep anything in as well. No bugs or diseases or the like could come out of your luggage if it's securely shrink-wrapped.

Another angle is there is a lot of snow in Russia and maybe over the years folks have learned that wrapping their bags up will keep them dry.

Who knows. Gotta ask the wife about this one when she gets home. One thing I noticed is that she'll put anything going into storage into plastic bags first, even if it's going into the closet or her dresser drawers or the pantry shelves. Somewhere that would stay clean and dry, she still wraps it up in a baggy. Luggage was the same way. All her clothes, shoes, books, etc., were in plastic bags, then packed into the suitcases, boxes, and larger plastic bags. Could it be becuase sometimes things in storage and transit in Russia tend to get pretty dusty and dirty, sometimes even wet?

I also found it very funny when we went to the market or a small kiosk or something in Russia if we wanted a plastic "paketa" to put something in there was always a charge for it. A nice bag with handles on it would run us the better part of $.50. Being in the plastic bag manufacturing business, I was surprised at the disparity between the value of a plastic bag in our country versus the value in Russia. We're inundated with them (even outlawed in some metropolitan areas) but overseas they're still worth something. Maybe because they're so good for storage!

I didn't get that impression. By the end of the evening most men were too drunk to go home with anyone but their other buddies. Most of the women hung out with each other the entire evening.

On the other hand, the men who did get out and dance with the ladies received no end of attention, and I'm sure didn't leave the club alone.

Alcoholism was the most surprising part of my trip. Going in, I knew it was a problem. But I wasn't prepared to see it so blatantly out in the open. You'd see guys staggering down the street at 9:00 in the morning, or any other time of the day.

In fact, speaking of funny stories that involve alcohol: My lady works as a nurse. We were walking to dinner one night and one of her patients spotted her and started calling out her name. The guy was 3 sheets to the wind. As he staggered up to us, he looked like he was going to grab her. I started to pull her back, thinking I was going to have to get myself into an altercation. Then all of a sudden she started yelling at him, and it was a scary site to behold. I've never seen that kind of fury and wrath. The guy stopped dead in his tracks and just slunk away. Hell, it scared me and I wasn't even on the receiving end. And then just like that she was completely re-composed, and we went on to have a nice dinner. There are times when I think I have a tiger by the tail, and then there are times when I think I only wish it were a tiger.

My understanding and observation is that russian women usually fast dance together while the russian men "reserve" themselves for the slow dances with the women. The men will watch the women fast dance and, if they see one they like, they will ask her for a slow dance. Is that really the way it works? C'mon russian women (and men) .... we are waiting for you to tell us how it really is?

Yes thats how it works.guys watching and then coming up..but again most of girls in Russia go to dance in club,not to hook up with men..I know sounds insane for americans.My husband did not believe me at start too.But thats true,i would go with my girls just to dance all night long till we fall over.and believe me or not without drinking alcohol at all.it helps to loose few pounds a night and relieve stress.
and normal girls never leave phone numbers and hook up at club,.guys there are nasty..i am talking again about Moscow..We used to go to the club fabriq.

We would let guys pay for our drinks, give them fake phone numbers and then escape... that was fun

Rule #1 Do not ever hope to meet a normal guy in a club, because all those beasts wanna do is f%$k you

Basically, the roles in Russian night clubs are reversed from those here.

You could compare the semi-sober Russian male to the overweight, but yet, semi-attractive American female. "They all get prettier at closing time." (The Russian equivalent to this would be "well, he's sober enough for his equipment to still function.")


Since this is the "stories" thread, I'll share a story from Moscow that pertains to the issue at hand. Whilst drinking a few too many beers with some new friends in the park across from the Pushkinskaya McDonald's, my buddy and I were amazed when the guys in our group (about 6 of us) encouraged us to accompany them down to Red Square so they could show us the sites of their country. They had two pretty nice looking girls with them, and the girls wanted the two guys they were with to take them home. The guys said a few words to them, hailed them a cab, then sent them on their way and said "Come on, let's go!"

My buddy and I couldn't believe that these young men had just dismissed two young women that were obviously only interested in the one thing most American guys go to a night club for, casual sex. We were like "are you guys serious? You're going to go walking down the street, drinking beer and singing songs, with more DUDES as opposed to taking those girls home and doing nasty things with them?"

I will never forget their reply, and to this day I believe it sums up the current state of affairs for young attractive women in Russia. They said "those are just b!tches. We only just met them last night. Anyways, we will find more tonight!" My buddy and I were like "you mean you just let them go, knowing they were going to have sex with you guys.... you just told them you'd see them later?" And they said "Of course. And anyway, we never will see them later. There are so many more, those girls were nothing anyway. They were just $luts we met in a club. There are much hotter and better ones out there. You'll see when we take you guys with us to the club tonight."

And they were right. There were more.

Now I'm not going to say that's the way it is everywhere in Russia. But, I've known a lot of girls from a lot of different places in Russia and they've all told me pretty much the same story; "Russian men have better things to do than pay attention to the women." A (single) man with a decent job that stays sober most of the time and doesn't beat them up isn't exactly easy to find. They are out there, but there are way more gorgeous girls that stay sober and don't eat all the time.


Edited: For all those offended by the content or language of this post, I presented it as it happened for the sake of illustrating the reality of what I saw while in the presence of real people. If you're offended by reality, please don't partake in it.

Well since women followed those guys from club they probably were bitches..
Good girls just catch a taxi around 2-3 am and go home,they dont wait till the club closing at 7 am.
Sometimes if we were just 2 girls we would wait till 6 am because its safer to leave once metro is working.
again for most of good girls it happens few times a year,not every single week end!!!
Men?Yes it is a problem in russia,why you think we marry american men?lol
No you are wrong,not for money:)))))russians are very rich!!!at least in moscow they are.

Why is it that russian men have such a cavalier (don't care so much) attitude towards Russian women? I have observed that many (not all) Russian men shy away from family responsibilities and let the women bear most of the load. In fact, I think Russian women do most of the real work anyways..... at home, on the job, wherever. My fiancee says that she knows how to cure many of Russia's ills. Just let Russian women run the country. [Probably not a bad idea for the USA also.... Hillary Clinton excepted.] From what I observed during my limited time in Russia, I tend to agree with my fiancee.

In contrast, many (not all) American women seem to have lost their sense of what it means to be a woman. My fiancee and I have often thought that it would benefit both Russian men and American women if they could spend some time together....... that is, if they could stand being in the same room for any length of time. Russian men might become more responsible and enlightened. American women might regain some of the feminine qualities they once had.

What makes Russian men this way? Too many women..... not enough men? They way they are brought up during childhood? Current socio-economic conditions? Would Russian men and American women benefit from each other?

What do you think?

I do not agree about women leading everywhere ...In russia still Men are supposed to provide for family and women keep omfort at home.Normally women works for her pleasure and Man of providing food and other important stuff.
there are very many women out there that have to work for living,because they married very young and husbands turned into an alcoholics..It is very hard in a small cities to find a job.
I lived in Moscow and have a bit different idea of all these.Man do respect women much more than in america.
Just nor normal women or men go to clubs to hook up.
I was a manager in a foreigner holding and i had 40 males to manage,most of them make quite a decent money and are very good to their wives..If we talk about losers,well show me the country that does not have them:)
I am married to American,because i love him and there is no any other reason than that.I could also find russian bf,just problem is they are a bit hard to find,since most of good guys aged 28-30that are suitible for me are already married or devorced..
And younger--i am not very interested in them.so probably that is a problem.but I believe we have a great men in russia too:)
So do american women:)not all of them are feminists:)Deep inside even they would be feminine if american mammome men-that still live with parents go and do some work to provide:)
No offense meant:)

Let me give you examples of women working for other reasons.
1. My wife and I both work hard, because if only one of us worked we wouldn't have to choose between food, energy, or shelter. As a man I must have failed her badly, because even on my future Attorney's salary it will be near impossible to afford a medium price home of $800,000 in San Francisco on just one salary.
2. My wife's sister lives in Tomsk, Russia. They too cannot afford a flat and are sharing a room in their parents home. She too is working hard and full time in order to save up 1,000,000 rubles in order to buy a one bedroom flat, and they individually make less than 10,000 rubles per month. Note: They were denied credit to buy their own flat. Her husband also I suppose failed her as a man.
3. My mother makes twice as much money as my father. Because in America registered nurses make twice as much as engineers! Unlike the other two men I described above, he was able to buy a home, but my mother works, because she wants the family to have nice things, go on vacation, and enjoy themselves rather than living pay check to pay check. He too must have failed her as man.

No offense taken. Thank you very much for your response. It is much appreciated.

I do not think of it so much as "failing as a man" or succeeding. Life is life. It is tough nowadays to make it on one salary.... even my former attorney salary. Sometimes it is tough to make it on two salaries. In fact, it will be difficult financially when my finacee and her son arrive. However, we have a saying that encourages us and gives us hope: "Life may sometimes be difficult and hard..... but as long as we are together life will always be beautiful."

That is totally not true. I do not know a single woman that works "for pleasure". In fact, the majority of men and women (in Moscow and other cities) work to survive. My mother has her own business, and works very hard... not because my dad is an alcoholic, but because it is not possible to survive on a surgeon's salary of $1000 a year.
The situation you are describing, reminds me of the stories my mother-in-law tells me: back in the 1980s when USSR was still strong, they used to live in Tbilisi, Georiga (100% corruption on all levels), and yes, she was working for pleasure. What she was making as a music-school teacher was only enough to pay for a cab (she used to take a CAB to work EVERY DAY). Yet, they had enough money to take a flight to Moscow once a week to see a performance in Bolshoi Theatre.

I think she was talking about married women working only if they want to, not single women.

I've explained to my wife several times that we've been conditioned, as men, here in the U.S. that we don't automatically "help" women anymore. We're not allowed to. There was a time when it was acceptable, even encouraged, for men to be "gentlemen" and hold the door open for a lady or to extend a hand when she was exiting the bus, etc.

Now, pull a chair out for a female while out on a date and you're automatically labeled as an overpowering male dominance type.

The problem with this whole situation is the ladies secretly like being treated like ladies, but they've already dug their own grave, and now they have to lie in it. The same women that will tell you "I want to be treated like a lady" will also be the one to tell you "I can do it myself."

There's a thin line here because the same "gentlemenly" behavior that necessitated holding the door for a lady also entitled her to the receiving end of an @$$ slap after passing by. Women worked very hard to change that part but unfortunately stopping the @$$ slapping resulted in a suspension of door opennings as well.

The current status of "get your own door" is often preceded by an "I can get it myself" or followed by an "I don't need your help." So, what's a guy to do?

Personally, I have noticed that holding the door and refraining from the @$$ slap is quite readily accepted if done in a manner which doesn't imply "I just held the door for you b!tch, you better let me slap your @$$ later."

The hard part is selling the fact that, as a man, I don't want to slap your @$$. I mean come on, I did just hold the door for you, afterall.

I meant "I do not know anybody who works for pleasure"

I completely agree with you on this topic. But I think you do know someone: Kotenochek, and her family

I've met a couple women "in the lady business" (otherwise known as the world's oldest profession) and they seem to do pretty well for themselves, well enough that they could've retired a long time ago. They keep working for some reason though. I'm not sure if it's for pleasure or not, but they're certainly not trying to find a "best customer" to turn into a husband.

(From what I've been told, and their actions supported it, they get to the point where they're addicted to the power they hold over the men they service, and the money that comes along with it. Once in another profession, they aren't treated with the same "respect" as while they're "working.")

FUNNY STORIES - FUNNY STORIES - FUNNY STORIES....... that is the theme of this thread........... althrough I could write forever about how the radical elements of the feminist movement took control and sold American women a bill of goods.

In the beginning it was mostly about equal pay for equal work..... but, as the more radical elements took control, it was transformed into "men are bad" and included "men are condescending" if they are courteous to women (e.g. opening doors, giving up seats on bus, etc.). The end result was men being chewed out or verbally reprimanded for simply trying to be nice. Most guys I know simply gave up after 2 or 3 such negative experiences. I still do it for strangers sometimes but it is a total dice roll as to whether the woman will respond positively or negatively. Accordingly, I find myself limiting my politeness to women I know (family, fiancee, etc.) and letting the others fend for themselves. Sadly, because I limit myself, the politeness that was once second nature and an automatic response is now lost. I have to think about it and I sometimes forget even with those women close to me.

mmmmmm.... even now I can not stick to my own theme. My apologies. Somebody please rescue us from the feminism topic.

Bags, bags, bags! Oh my God, how could I forget about that. My wife saves every single plastic bag we get at the store. In fact she told me to not take paperbags but plastic ones. I hope she isn't planning on selling them for kopecks in Ukraine. Since she has arrived (almost two years now) we have plastic bags everywhere. She wraps everything we get in plastic bags and buries it in the refrigerator. I have to unwrap and open everything to figure out what it is. She even wraps things that have their own refrigerated container.

Every cupboard under the sink is filled with plastic bags. I don't mind her saving them but can't we find a way to package them so they don't look like packing material for shipping things. I have to pull out bags holding bags to find things under the sink like cleanser, ant spray, mouthwash or bar soap. Every bathroom waste basket has a bag to hold trash. Before she arrived I just dropped trash in the basket and then dumped the waste into the trash can before trash day. If the waste basket was dirty it was an easy job to wash it out.

I thought that article about trying to restrict Russian women from marrying foreigners was interesting. Maybe we should line up that guy with the people responsible for IMBRA. We could set up an exchange program where we will send American women to hook up with Russian guys. After all, a lot of American women believe they are the best women in the world, so how could that not improve the Russian gene pool.

Hahahaha... good story. On a side note, do you really think Russian men would be interested?

My grandma had a similar plastic-bag-mania (this tendency to save "stuff" goes back to Soviet times when everything, from maternity clothes to plastic bags was impossible to find), but she used to go even further, she would wash dirty plastic bags and hang them up to dry, I hope she does not do that any more